You ever have a week so bad that by the end of it you’re just totally zen?  Feeling that the only thing you can do is accept your lot and figure out how to fix it? Become insanely grateful for the slightest bit of good (ie, the store wasn’t out of toilet paper!  Hooray!)

Guess what, out of the three options, I actually did this week:

• Finished Demon Bound
• Saw Watchmen
• Took the Impala to the shop because the transmission suddenly began whining at high RPMs, and discovered that said transmission was teetering on the brink of crapping out, and that the dealer who sold it had quite clearly lied to my face about same.

Now.  I’m going to leave comments open because later in the post, there will be good stuff.

But.  Please don’t tell me I should have had the car inspected more thoroughly or what the signs of a bad transmission are (I know what they are, and if I’d seen them in the test drive I wouldn’t have bought the car.)  Please don’t try to educate me about lemon laws or tell me what I should be doing in regards to getting the work on the transmission paid for.  I’m on it, and at this point I’m sick of talking about the lying scumbag, frankly.  I appreciate the help, internets, but until I get a final bill and an accounting of the problem in writing from my mechanic, there’s precious little I can do other than punch the guy in the face.  And I’d rather get him to pay for the rebuild.

Also.  I hesitate in most cases to talk about Emotions on the blog, but I’m fine.  Really.  Livid, yes.  Disappointed, yes.  But I’m not freaking out, over here.  In cases like this, the best you can do is suck it up, deal, and thank dog you’d set aside some advance money to have the car worked on.  I thank everyone in advance for their sympathy, but I am not huddled in a ball crying and plotting untimely deaths.  Not yet, anyway.

Okay.  On with the blog.

The week hasn’t, in fact, been a total washout.  The Paranormal Bender Tour is safe, with altenate transportation.  Second Skin is doing well by all accounts.  I got to take care of some long-standing dental issues and my dentist’s name is Dr. Jayne, which cracks me up to no end.  Because I’m a dork.

Oh, and my new transmission is going to be an SS model, which means the car will be even faster and more badass than it was (and not some project car passed off on me by a lying liar who lies.)  It’ll be good in the long run, because it’s a show-quality car and the transmission that’s in it now wasn’t original factory issue anyway.  If you’re going to yank something like that out, more power is generally the way to go.

I haven’t gotten much writing done, what with all of the stress and the occasional moment of homicidal rage, but because Agent Rachel is awesome, everything is A-okay from a deadline perspective.  And in a happy story of things that actually work, I got my Mothership computer back good as new and avoided a hard drive replacement.  If you’re in the South Puget Sound, I can’t recommend 4th Dimension Computers in Lacey highly enough.  I’ve taken my machines to them for years and they’ve always outperformed in the service department.

To wrap up, here are the promised links:

The Book Smugglers interview Jackie Kessler and I (well, our characters) about Black & White.

Night Owl Romance (which, with the advent of Watchmen, puts all sorts of silly images in my head) reviews Second Skin.

And that’s the news.  I’m off to work, make some clean laundry for the tour, and finish reading Watchmen in graphic novel form while I’m getting my hair done (see?  The dork, it knows no bounds.)  I’ll probably see the movie on Sunday.

Assuming another giant asteroid hasn’t hit the earth by then.